SOFIA, Bulgaria — Bulgarian authorities said Tuesday they have a Frenchman under arrest who is believed to have links to Cherif Kouachi, one of the Charlie Hebdo attackers.

Fritz-Joly Joachin, 29, was arrested Jan. 1 as he tried to cross into Turkey, under two European arrest warrants, one citing his alleged links to a terrorist organization and a second for allegedly kidnapping his 3-year-old son and smuggling him out of the country, said Darina Slavova, the regional prosecutor for Bulgaria’s southern province of Haskovo.

“He met with Kouachi several times at the end of December,” Slavova said.

The Kouachi brothers, Cherif and Said, and their friend, Amedy Coulibaly, the man who killed four hostages in the Paris kosher market and one policewoman, died Friday in clashes with French police. All three claimed ties to Islamic extremists in the Middle East — the Kouachis to al-Qaida in Yemen and Coulibaly to the Islamic State group.

The Kouachi brothers killed 12 people at the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo on Jan. 7. They targeted the newspaper for publishing cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad.

In Paris on Tuesday, President Francois Hollande led a ceremony honouring the three slain police officers.

The French government has been accused of creating a “toxic atmosphere” that may have led to a vigilante mob attack on a Roma teenager.

The 16-year-old boy, known only as Darius, was still in a coma Thursday, fighting for his life a week after being dragged from the squalid camp where he and his family lived, battered and dumped in a supermarket trolley.

He is being guarded by two police officers in a Paris hospital.

Police, who have made no arrests in the case, said the balaclava-wearing vigilante mob who seized Darius had accused him of burgling a nearby apartment.

Pictures of the teenager slumped in the trolley, published by The Daily Telegraph, have shocked France.

They have added to the heated debate about government policy towards France’s 20,000-strong Roma community, most of whom come from Romania and Bulgaria and live in camps on the poor fringes of cities.

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President Francois Hollande denounced the attack on Darius as an “unspeakable and unjustifiable attack on all the principles on which our republic was founded”.

But critics say government policy has stigmatised the Roma, who are frequently accused of burglaries and of running child pickpocket rings.

Manuel Valls, the prime minister, came under stinging criticism late last year when, as interior minister, he said most Roma in France had no intention of integrating and should be sent back to their countries of origin.

The current Socialist government has pursued the controversial policies begun under the previous conservative administration of Nicolas Sarkozy, demolishing Roma camps and sending many of the people back to their home countries.

THOMAS SAMSON/AFP/Getty ImagesA picture taken on on June 17, 2014 in Pierrefitte-sur-Seine outside Paris, shows a part of a squalid camp where used to live a Roma teenager who is fighting for his life. A gruesome vigilante assault on a Roma teenager has shocked France, with President Francois Hollande dubbing the savage beating an "unspeakable and unjustifiable" act.

Last year, a total of 19,380 were deported, but many have since probably returned to France. On Wednesday, riot police moved in to clear a Roma camp that had housed around 400 people near the southern city of Marseille.

Violeta Naydenova, of the Open Society Foundations, a non-profit organisation aimed at promoting democratic government, said: “There is a toxic atmosphere in France at the moment, going right up to government level, which allows anti-Roma speech and behaviour. This violent attack against a young Roma boy is partly the tragic outcome of this.”

Jean-Claude Aparicio, of the human rights group Ligue des droits de l’Homme, said: “This is a new act of barbarism on the part of the state which operates policies that resolve nothing.”

Government orders state that when a Roma camp is cleared, officials should offer alternative housing for its residents and make sure that children are transferred to another school.

But Amnesty International and other rights groups say that these guidelines are mostly ignored.

BERTRAND LANGLOIS/AFP/Getty ImagesFrench riot police stand guard in front of an illegal camp site left by members of the Roma minority group in Marseille, southern France, on June 18, 2014.

In the case of Marseille, only 18 families would be rehoused, Amnesty said in a statement. “Dozens of children will be without a roof over their heads, when just the day before they were going to school and had a minimum of stability,” it said.

Darius’s family had moved to the camp in the bleak northern suburbs of Paris three weeks before the attack after being evicted from another camp nearby.

They are now believed to be hiding in another camp somewhere in the Saint-Denis suburb of northern Paris. “The family is afraid, afraid of everybody,” said one man at the camp claiming to be a family friend. The family is reportedly refusing to talk to the press.

The attack on Darius has caused widespread anger in his native Romania, where television and print media have given the story wide coverage.

BERTRAND LANGLOIS/AFP/Getty ImagesFrench riot police stand guard as militants speak each other in front of an illegal camp site left by members of the Roma minority group in Marseille, southern France, on June 18, 2014.

One Romanian MEP blamed France’s anti-immigrant Front National party, which took first place in last month’s European elections, for stirring hatred of Roma. “I think that Marine Le Pen and the hate speech propagated by the Front National are morally guilty for the disfigurement of this child,” said Damian Draghici.

Officials at the French interior ministry were not available when contacted for comment on whether government policy would change following the attack.

KYIV, Ukraine — An explosion hit a pipeline carrying Russian natural gas across Ukraine to Europe on Tuesday, and the government said it suspected it may have been a “terrorist act.”

The blast, which occurred far from where government troops are fighting pro-Russia separatists, came a day after Russia cut gas supplies to Ukraine in a dispute over price and overdue payments.

Ukrainian state gas company Naftogaz said gas flow to Europe was maintained by using a parallel, reserve pipeline. Slovakian pipeline operator Eustream said it saw no fall in pressure in gas pipelines from Ukraine to Europe after the incident.

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“Several theories of what happened are being considered, including the main theory of a terrorist act,” Interior Minister Arsen Avakov said in a statement.

He said local residents heard two loud claps before the explosion, which occurred in the Poltava region about 200 kilometres east of Kyiv, the capital. No injuries were reported.

Emergencies services officials had initially said that the explosion was caused by a loss of pressure in the pipeline.

Oliver Bunic/BloombergRussian state-run exporter OAO Gazprom branded end caps sit on sections of unfinished pipeline beside farmland at the halted construction site for the South Stream gas project in Sajkas, Serbia, on Sunday, June 15, 2014.

Also on Tuesday, Russia’s foreign minister insisted the EU’s order to halt construction work on the South Stream pipeline in Bulgaria is only a brief delay in the project planned to bypass Ukraine as a transit country and consolidate Russia’s energy grip in Europe.

Sergei Lavrov said Tuesday “there are absolutely no changes in plans, I have absolutely no doubt that this halt is only temporary.”

The South Stream pipeline, in which Russian state gas company Gazprom holds a 50% stake, would provide an alternative supply route for Bulgaria, Serbia, Croatia, Hungary, Slovenia, Austria and Italy from 2018.

Bulgaria froze work upon orders of the European Commission, which said Bulgaria hadn’t respected rules on awarding public contracts. The Commission has also delayed some political talks on the pipeline amid the Ukrainian crisis.

Vincent Mundy/BloombergAn employee adjusts a valve wheel beside pipework at the Bilche-Volytsko-Uherske underground gas storage site, operated by Ukrtransgaz, a unit of Ukraine's state energy company NAK Naftogaz Ukrainy, in Lviv, Ukraine, on Wednesday, May 21, 2014. Russia supplies about 30% of Europe's gas needs, with half of that transported through pipelines crossing Ukraine.

]]>http://news.nationalpost.com/2014/06/17/ukraine-suspects-terrorist-act-as-russian-natural-gas-pipeline-explodes-far-from-insurgent-hotspots/feed/1stdA police car parked beside a field Tuesday near a fire on the gas pipeline the village of Iskivtsi in the Lokhvytsia region. Oliver Bunic/BloombergVincent Mundy/Bloomberg'Don't judge us by our criminals': 'Gipsy King' says U.K. has nothing to fear over potential influx of Romahttp://news.nationalpost.com/2013/12/29/dont-judge-us-by-our-criminals-gipsy-king-says-u-k-has-nothing-to-fear-over-potential-influx-of-roma/
http://news.nationalpost.com/2013/12/29/dont-judge-us-by-our-criminals-gipsy-king-says-u-k-has-nothing-to-fear-over-potential-influx-of-roma/#commentsMon, 30 Dec 2013 00:05:09 +0000http://news.nationalpost.com/?p=408058

The Roma insist alarm about their arrival in Britain is driven by prejudice, says Colin Freeman in Plovdiv

In the eyes of some, Kiril Rashkov is just the sort of person that Britain should be worried about when work restrictions on Bulgaria and Romania relax next year.

telegraph.co.ukArrested over the years for everything from bootlegging to intimidation, Kiril Rashkov was once accused of running a network of Roma child thieves across Europe.

A self-styled “Gipsy King” from the Bulgarian city of Plovdiv, he has a reputation as fearsome as the 120-proof brandy he sips while sitting on his gilt-framed throne.

Arrested over the years for everything from bootlegging to intimidation, he was once accused of running a network of Roma child thieves across Europe. For every pocket picked in London or Rome, it was said, a cut of the proceeds would land in Mr Rashkov’s own, helping fund three lavish homes in Katunitsa, on the outskirts of Plovdiv.

Today, the silver-haired 72 year-old, who runs his own brandy distillery, insists he is just a victim of anti-Roma prejudice. The allegations by Italian police that he was some kind of Euro-Fagin, he says, are “rubbish”- just like the tax evasion charges for which he has just served a two-year jail sentence. But while the word of a man just out of prison may not count for much, his is probably as close as the British public will get to any reassurance that yet more Roma gangs will not come over as of January 1.

“The Roma are hardworking people, we are just persecuted in our own countries,” Mr Rashkov said, wagging a diamond-ringed finger.

We are just persecuted in our own countries

“But do I expect a lot of Roma criminals and beggars to go to England next year? No. If a country has strong laws, they can deal with this kind of thing.”

British politicians do not seem to share his confidence. Only last month David Blunkett, the former Labour home secretary, warned of riots in his home city of Sheffield because of tensions caused by groups of Roma families, who were accused of littering, anti-social behaviour and intimidation.

As The Sunday Telegraph reported earlier this year, Westminster council paid to fly a group of Roma beggars home to Romania, only to find them back at their Park Lane squatter camp weeks later.

AP Photo/Alastair GrantRecent editions of Britain's Daily Express and Daily Mail newspapers, featuring headlines about immigration, are photographed in London, Friday, Dec. 27, 2013. For months, Britain's tabloids have repeatedly warned of the horrors they believe will ensue after Jan. 1, 2014 when work restrictions will be lifted across the European Union for migrants from Romania and Bulgaria.

Already, some 200,000 Roma are believed to be in the UK, despite the Government claiming in 2011 that “relatively few” had settled here.

The expectation is of a fresh influx next year, when rules giving Bulgarians and Romanians full rights to work in the UK take effect.

For the Roma, though, it is about more than just jobs. Tolerant, multicultural Britain is seen as an opportunity to escape centuries of poverty and discrimination.

As Mr Blunkett warned, though, the growth of large-scale Roma communities in Britain could put that tolerance under strain. Unlike the educated Poles, Czechs and Hungarians working as plumbers, nannies and Starbucks baristas, only about one in three Bulgarian Roma go to secondary school.

In Bulgaria, one does not have to look far to find people sceptical about Mr Rashkov’s claims that Roma will not see Britain as a benefits paradise.

His own lawyer, for one, was in strong disagreement with his client. “The Roma will be the real danger for your social system next year,” grinned Vasil Markov, who sat alongside Mr Rashkov during last week’s interview.

“While other people will come to work, the Roma will come for the benefits.”

The Roma will come for the benefits

A visit to the Stolipinovo district of Plovdiv shows just why many of Bulgaria’s Roma no longer see their future there. Home to about 45,000 Roma, it is a mass of dilapidated, Soviet-era housing blocks, with illegally built shanty towns spreading in between. Lack of a proper water supply caused a hepatitis outbreak in 2006.

The Roma have languished in ghettoes ever since they came to Eastern Europe in the Middle Ages as migratory tribes from north-west India. In communist times, little attempt was made to integrate them, but like all other citizens, they were at least guaranteed state jobs. Capitalism has offered no such certainties.

AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda, FileA road sign is seen on the exit side of the border crossing point between Romania and Moldova in Sculeni, Romania.

Among those loitering on a street corner in Stolipinovo last week was Krasimir Simianov, who had just come back from a four-month stint working in Germany. His Turkish employers ripped him off to €300, he claimed, and he spent much of his time sleeping rough and eating at soup kitchens. Even so, it was better than Stolipinovo.

“There is no work here at all, so next year I will go back,” he said.

So too will Ivan Shaip, 54, who did casual labouring jobs in London last year. “I will go back again if I can find a job,” he said, watching a horse and cart gallop past. “The English are very friendly.”

Rather less so are many of Mr Shaip’s fellow Bulgarians, many of whom will be only too delighted if the Roma decamp en masse. “This is a pan-European problem now, not just a Bulgarian one,” said Ivan Todorov, a former army colonel, who was walking past the outskirts of Stolipinovo on his way home. “You Western Europeans have not quite registered the level of criminality that you are about to face.”

With such mutual antagonism, it is perhaps no surprise that the kind of rioting of which Mr Blunkett warned has already taken place in Bulgaria. Mr Rashkov, whose title holds no official weight, is effectively a Roma king in exile, having been chased out of his home town when it erupted into racially charged violence two years ago.

Trouble flared after Angel Petrov, a teenager involved in a feud with one of Mr Rashkov’s grandsons, was killed in a hit-and-run incident, allegedly on the gipsy king’s orders.

The death incensed local villagers, who formed a vigilante mob that burnt down Mr Rashkov’s three homes. More than 350 people were arrested, and while police claimed the mob was infiltrated by Bulgaria’s far-Right, it showed the tinderbox atmosphere that often exists.

Today, Mr Rashkov is still banned from returning to Katunitsa by the new mayor, a tough former policeman who describes him as a “bandit”.

Instead, his ornate, purpose-built throne – reminiscent of one used by an Ottoman sultan – is now in the living room of a modest flat in Plovdiv, from where he protests his innocence.

The claims that he ordered Petrov’s killing are all part of a smear campaign, he says, as were the allegations, later dropped, by Italian police that he ran a pickpocketing ring back in 2006.

“The Katunitsa people are all peasants, they are talking bull–- about this incident – it was my homes that were destroyed, not theirs,” he said. “I would welcome a European Union inquiry.”

That is probably unlikely. Brussels does, however, expect Eastern European governments to spend part of the multi-billion-pound subsidies it gives them each year on improving the Roma’s lot.

As it said in a report last year: “The current situation of Roma living in poor conditions?… has had consequences in terms of increased numbers temporarily migrating to the EU.”

So are such subsidies having any effect? Farcically, it seems that nobody knows, not even Brussels. The main source of potential cash for Roma projects comes from the European Commission social fund, which earmarked £5 billion for Bulgaria and Romania to spend on employment and “social cohesion” between 2007 and 2013.

But the Commission only requires the money to be spent on “vulnerable social groups”, rather than earmarking it for the Roma. Nor does it even keep tabs on how much is actually spent on Roma: a spokesman for the Commission told The Sunday Telegraph that no details were available as no mechanism was in place to gather the information.

It gives us the worst of both worlds

That lack of transparency, critics say, gives a free reign for politicians to spend the money on other causes, given that projects that benefit Roma are known vote-losers.

“It gives us the worst of both worlds. The public thinks the money is for Roma anyway and that incites hatred towards us, and in fact we get nothing,” said Orhan Tahir, a Bulgarian Roma activist. Mr Tahir is a lawyer, forming part of a small Roma middle class that includes writers, actors and poets, who confound the stereotypes.

That, however, has not stopped the European Commission spending money on schemes to rectify “less-than-balanced” reporting of Roma issues, having decided that privately owned media cannot do this responsibly.

That, certainly, is the impression given by the blurb for “Roma Beyond Stereotypes”, a film project that received £250,000 from the Commission. Its website states: “As most outlets are commercial and often driven exclusively by market forces, they show little interest in confronting prejudice.”

One Bulgarian Roma who fits few stereotypes is Tsvetelin Kanchev, 46, the burly, avuncular founder of Bulgaria’s Euroma Party. With his black limousine, big gold ring and earpiece-wearing bodyguard, he comes across at first glance as just another garrulous Roma strongman.

He claims, for example, that his family put the original curse on America’s Kennedy clan, after one Patrick Kennedy refused to marry one of his ancestors in Ireland in 1836. However, the former petrol station boss is nothing if not upwardly mobile. His son Gyorgi, 16, was educated at boarding school in Suffolk, and speaks in perfect English of his desire to become a stockbroker. And the aim of his father’s party is to improve the Bulgarian Roma’s lot to the point where they no longer need to head west in the first place.

“In the towns where we have a presence, our people get equal rights and we improve the infrastructure,” he says during a tour of the ghetto in Sofia that is his power base. “Ninety per cent of children here now go to primary school, for example, And you should see one of our towns on the Black Sea coast – it looks so nice nowadays, we call it Beverly Hills.”

They were blessed personally by Jesus to be thieves

It is inspiring stuff – until Mr Kanchev makes it clear he only really speaks on behalf of Bulgarian Roma. He is rather less complimentary about the Kalderash, a caste predominant in Romania, whom he describes as born thieves.

“According to the Kalderash’s tribal mythology, a Kalderash kid stole the nails when the ancient Romans were about to crucify Jesus,” he said. “They had to postpone the crucifixion, and as a result, they were blessed personally by Jesus to be thieves. The problem you British will face is from the Kalderash of Romania, believe me.”

Could that be true? Fortunately, most other Roma say the story bears about as much truth as Mr Kanchev’s claims about the Kennedy curse. “To say all Kalderash people are like that is to use the language of Nazi scientific theory,” said Mr Tahir.

But with their peers still willing to peddle such stories, it is perhaps not surprising that the image the Roma have had since medieval times looks likely to follow them west. As Mr Kanchev points out, though, every community has its bogeymen. “We have some Britons in jail here in Bulgaria for sex offences against children,” he said. “We don’t lump them together with Shakespeare or Elton John. And you shouldn’t judge us Roma by our criminals.”

SOFIA, Bulgaria — Bulgarian prosecutors pressed preliminary charges Thursday against a Roma woman who may be the mother of a girl found living with an unrelated couple in Greece. Though DNA tests have yet to prove she is that girl’s mother, the woman’s admission that she once left a baby behind in Greece opened her up to a formal investigation.

Sasha Ruseva, 35, acknowledged to Bulgarian TV that she had been questioned about the girl in Greece known as “Maria,” who is believed to be 5-6 years old. The girl’s case has gained global notice and drawn what some say is unfair attention to the Roma, who have long faced racism, poverty and some of whom have resorted to crime.

Ruseva said that if DNA proves she’s the girl’s mother, she’ll take her back. But she denied taking any money for giving up her baby to another Roma, or Gypsy, family, years ago. The preliminary charges filed against her allow authorities to start an investigation into if she is telling the truth about whether money exchanged hands.

Nikolay Doychinov / AFP / Getty ImagesTheir home in the Roma district of the central Bulgarian town of Nikolaevo

Greek authorities took custody of “Maria” after finding her while raiding a Roma camp for illegal weapons and drugs. The child stood out to police and others on the scene because she was blond and fair-skinned – and looked nothing like the couple who claimed to be her parents.

After a DNA test proved she wasn’t theirs, an international search was then launched to find the child’s real parents, while the couple she had been living with were arrested. The search apparently led to central Bulgaria, where police tracked down Ruseva in the town of Nikolaevo.

Ruseva said that she gave birth to a girl while working in Greece “several years ago,” but that she had to leave the child because she didn’t have enough money to take her home. Ruseva has had eight children.

Nikolay Doychinov / AFP / Getty ImagesFour of the children of Sasha Ruseva and Atanas Rusev

“I intended to go back and take my child home, but meanwhile I gave birth to two more kids so I was not able to go back,” said Ruseva, who insisted that she did not get paid for giving up the girl.

Though Ruseva herself is dark-haired and dark-skinned, as she spoke to the TV channel, she held a young girl in her arms who looked quite similar to the girl in Greece.

Bulgarian Interior Ministry chief secretary Svetlozar Lazarov confirmed that his office was working on the case with Greek police.

Lazarov said that during Thursday’s questioning Ruseva said she had recognized the Greek Roma couple in the “Maria” case, whose pictures have been broadcast on TV, as the same people with whom she left her child while working in Greece.

AFP/Getty ImagesSasha Ruseva was quoted as saying that desperate poverty had forced her to leave behind a baby in Greece and that Maria looked like she might be hers

Prosecutors, meanwhile, announce they had pressed preliminary charges against Ruseva for “deliberately selling a child while residing out of the country.”

“A DNA test has been taken from Ruseva, and information has been collected about her trips to Greece in the last years,” said a statement from the prosecutor’s office.

The “Maria” case has spurred concerns about child trafficking within the Roma community, and cries of racism as well.

In Ireland this past week, in an episode apparently inspired by the Greek case, two young blond, blue-eyed children were taken by Irish police from their Romanian Gypsy parents, who had different complexions. But the girl and boy were returned Wednesday to their families after DNA tests determined the children were rightfully theirs.

]]>http://news.nationalpost.com/2013/10/24/roma-woman-discovered-in-bulgaria-who-may-be-mother-of-maria-willing-to-take-child-back-if-hers/feed/0galleryPutative mother Sasha Ruseva with one of her children, whom she claims is albino, pose for photographers in town of Nikolaevo, Bulgaria, 24 October 2013. Bulgarian police interrogated a Roma couple that could be the biological parents of the blonde girl who had been found in a Roma ghetto in Greece and is known as MariaNikolay Doychinov / AFP / Getty ImagesNikolay Doychinov / AFP / Getty ImagesAFP/Getty ImagesWho in the world is Maria?http://news.nationalpost.com/2013/10/23/who-in-the-world-is-maria/
http://news.nationalpost.com/2013/10/23/who-in-the-world-is-maria/#commentsWed, 23 Oct 2013 11:00:35 +0000http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/?p=133390

Full Comment’s Araminta Wordsworth brings you a daily round-up of quality punditry from across the globe. Today: Almost everyone has heard about Madeleine McCann, the British four-year-old snatched from her parents’ apartment in Portugal in 2007.

No trace of her has ever been found even though the investigation continues. But in a development that should give hope to all parents of missing children, there’s the case of “Maria” — the blonde, blue-eyed girl found last week during a drug bust in a Roma encampment in Greece.

Investigators became suspicious because the child looked nothing like the couple claiming to be her parents. Christos Salis, 39, and Eleftheria Dimopoulou (or Selini Sali — she had ID in both names, with different ages) are Roma and dark-skinned.

DNA tests confirmed she was not related to them,and an examination of her her teeth suggested she was closer to six or seven than the four years old the couple claimed.

They said they had adopted her because her mother — an unknown Bulgarian woman — could not support her. Other reports say the mother, a prostitute, sold the child to the couple for 2,000 euros.

So who is she? The mystery has rekindled the hopes of thousands of parents whose children have disappeared — an astonishing number in this age of security cameras, cellphones, Amber alerts and instant communication.

The Smile of a Child charity that is looking after Maria says it has received about 8,000 calls and thousands of emails from people around the world.

A spokesman said about 10 cases of missing children were being considered “very seriously … They include children from the United States, Canada, Poland and France,” said Panagiotis Pardalis

Maria’s discovery throws the spotlight on the prevalence of child trafficking in Greece, says the BBC’s Giorgos Christides.

Criminal organizations bring hundreds of children from the Balkans to Greece, where they are subjected to forced labour, sex-trafficking or sold to couples, in Greece or abroad, in illegal adoption schemes.

“There are currently 3,000 children transited through Greece by child-trafficking rings. The children originate mainly from Bulgaria, Romania and other Balkan countries,” says Lambros Kanellopoulos, the president of the UN children’s agency UNICEF in Greece.

Mr. Kanellopoulos says Greece’s status as a trafficking hub can be attributed to two factors: its geographical location, and its ineffective prevention and prosecution procedures. “The system is full of holes,” he says.

They are now working on what they see is the strongest theory: that Maria may have been a child “left over” after police broke up child trafficking rings between 2008 and 2010. Those raids targeted Bulgarians coming into Greece to sell children into illegal adoptions – and because of the spotlight being shone on the trade, the child was left with the gipsy couple to look after.

Greece’s chaotic and ineffective bureaucracy doesn’t help.

Maria’s “parents,” for example, claimed to have 14 children, six of them born in less than 10 months. This is because parents can get a birth certificate merely by submitting a signed declaration supported by two other people, rather based on hospital records — and obviously open to fraud. The mother was also registered with three municipalities to receive welfare payments.

The Independent’s Memphis Baker warns against stigmatizing the Roma, one of Europe’s most disadvantaged groups.

The difficulty here is keeping things in perspective. Already the fact that Maria is blonde and white, inevitably a reminder of Madeleine McCann, has contributed to wall-to-wall coverage. Were it a Romanian child found in the Roma camp, this would not have been a story. And, for populations that interact with the Roma primarily in the form of street-beggars, or tabloid scaremongering, it takes a mental contortion to get a sense of life from their point of view. These are the facts. 90% of Roma in Europe live below the poverty line. They are shunted ceaselessly from place to place. Many say they can’t get jobs.

In a case that parallels that of Maria, Irish police removed a child from another Roma family, reports the Sunday World’s Mick McCaffrey.

Gardai received a tip-off from a member of the public that a six or seven year-old girl was living with a large Roma family but looked nothing like any of her supposed siblings.

Officers from the child protection unit attached to Tallaght station [south of Dublin] called to the home on Monday afternoon and spoke with two Roma adults.

There were a number of children in the house and one was a young girl who had blonde hair and striking blue eyes. She looked nothing like anybody else in the house but the adults maintained that the girl was their daughter.

TORONTO—The FBI is investigating the “creation and procurement” of a fake Michigan driver’s license and U.S. social security card that were used by a Canadian Hezbollah operative suspected of bombing a bus full of Israeli tourists.

An alert posted on the FBI’s wanted web page confirms that investigators had found the false IDs used by Hassan El Hajj Hassan, 25, following the attack in Bulgaria that killed five Israelis, a local bus driver and one of the terrorists.

While in Bulgaria, Mr. Hajj Hassan had adopted the alias “Ralph William Rico” and had used fake identification bearing that name to check into hotels. The other two suspects had also used fake Michigan driver’s licenses.

“The United States identification used by the suspects was fraudulent; however, the FBI is investigating the creation and procurement of the driver’s licenses and social security card,” the agency said in its “seeking information” alert.

It described Mr. Hajj Hassan as a dual citizen of Lebanon and Canada, and said he was born in Zeghdraya, Saida, a coastal city south of Beirut. He speaks English and Arabic, it said, adding he was wanted for questioning in connection with the July 18, 2012 bombing.

Two weeks ago, Bulgarian authorities identified Mr. Haj Hassan as one of the suspects, along with Australian Meliad Farah. Sources told the National Post Mr. Hajj Hassan, a former Vancouver resident, had a child in Canada and had been in the country before the blast to visit him.

While Mr. Farah allegedly built the bomb, Mr. Hajj Hassan was described as the logistician of the operation, in charge of finding accommodation for the attackers and arranging their entry into Bulgaria and their exit following the blast.

Authorities believe the Canadian may have detonated the bomb remotely while his accomplice was planting it in the luggage compartment of the tour bus, which was parked at Sarafovo airport. There have been reports that Mr. Hajj Hassan may be hiding in Gaza or Lebanon.

Investigators probing a deadly tour bus bombing in Bulgaria believe a Canadian suspect in the attack was supposed to provide logistical support — arranging travel and accommodation — but may have ended up detonating the bomb, inadvertently killing a relative who was a co-conspirator.

Bulgarian authorities allege Hassan El Hajj Hassan, 25, who emigrated from Lebanon to Canada as a child, is a Hezbollah operative involved in last year’s bombing of a bus at an airport on Bulgaria’s coast that killed five Israeli tourists and their local driver.

HandoutHassan El Hajj Hassan seen in an undated photo, released by Bulgarian authorities.

Investigators tell the National Post the roles of at least three of the four suspects in the attack are becoming clearer.

Mr. Hassan’s planned role is believed to have been logistics: to arrange safe entry and exit to and from Bulgaria for the group and find them accommodation and transport, according to a source involved in the investigation.

But the bombing did not go exactly as planned.

Mr. Hassan travelled to Warsaw, Poland, using his Canadian passport. From there, Mr. Hassan, Meliad Farrah, 32, an Australian citizen also originally from Lebanon, and a third man, whose name is not known, but DNA tests show is a relative of Mr. Hassan, travelled to Bulgaria using false identification, posing as tourists.

The men likely brought at least some of the bomb parts with them to Bulgaria by train, including the remote control device to detonate it.

Mr. Farrah is accused of assembling the bomb in Bulgaria but seems to have left the country before the attack. A Lebanese television station said Mr. Farrah returned to Lebanon on July 17, 2012, the day before the explosion.

AP Photo/ BurgasinfoSmoke rises into the sky after an explosion at Burgas airport, outside the Black Sea city of Burgas, Bulgaria, some 400 kilometers east of the capital, Sofia, Wednesday, July 18, 2012.

The job of the unidentified relative of Mr. Hassan was to place the bomb, hidden in a backpack, into the luggage compartment of the tour bus at Sarafovo Airport, targeting Israeli tourists arriving from Tel Aviv to visit Bulgaria’s Black Sea resort.

HandoutImage of second suspect, Australian Meliad Farrah.

The bomb was to be detonated with a device having a 10-kilometre range.

It is now believed that Mr. Hassan likely is the one who triggered the explosion, the investigator said. Mr. Hassan’s relative, carrying the bomb, was decapitated in the blast.

Authorities initially described it as a suicide bombing, but now think the detonation occurred prematurely as the bomb was being planted.

Although the dead bomber’s DNA shows he was related to Mr. Hassan, the exact family connection is uncertain and his identity is unknown. An investigator described it as likely being a distant relative.

It is not clear why Mr. Hassan’s role seems to have changed, but if it was an unexpected switch it might explain why the plan faltered with the bomb not going off as it was likely meant to, as the bus was en route to the tourists’ hotel.

NIKOLAY DOYCHINOV/AFP/Getty ImagesTwo buses explode on April 26, 2013 as investigators re-enact the July 2012 Burgas airport bus bombing that killed five Israeli tourists near the town of Ihtiman in an effort to resolve some of the many still unanswered questions.

The role of a fourth man, also unidentified, is not yet clear. He is described as having European features.

After the bombing, Mr. Hassan fled to Romania before travelling to the Middle East, either returning to Lebanon or hiding in the Gaza Strip, according to reports.

Mr. Hassan and Mr. Farrah were named last week as wanted fugitives who will face trial, in absentia if necessary, in Bulgaria.

Bulgarian authorities released their names and photos, as well as video images of Mr. Farrah apparently shopping in Bulgaria. Mr. Hassan is not seen in the surveillance footage.

The two men were allegedly recruited into the Lebanese Shi’ite group Hezbollah while studying engineering at a Beirut university. They received tactical and weapons training as well as financial support using wire transfers to bank accounts in Canada, authorities allege.

AP Photo/ Impact Press Group, FileA damaged bus is transported out of Burgas airport, Bulgaria, a day after a deadly suicide attack on a bus full of Israeli vacationers.

The two fugitives were part of a Hezbollah network in Canada and Australia, where representatives remain, authorities said earlier.

Mr. Hassan is alleged to have returned to Canada to collect the money to finance the plot. He has a child here and he returned to visit his child before the bombing.

Although born in Lebanon, he came to Canada as a young boy with his mother and brother to join his father, who had already moved to Canada and become a Canadian citizen. Mr. Hassan became a Canadian citizen but returned to Lebanon with his mother when his parents divorced.

Hezbollah has denied involvement in the attack.

Canadian officials have said they are co-operating in the investigation.

Bulgarian authorities believe a Canadian man accused of being a Hezbollah operative responsible for a deadly bomb attack may be hiding in the Gaza Strip.

Hassan El Hajj Hassan, 25, who emigrated from Lebanon to Canada as a child, was named Thursday as one of two surviving suspects responsible for last year’s bombing of a bus at an airport in Burgas, on Bulgaria’s coast, that killed five Israeli tourists and their local driver.

HandoutHassan El Hajj Hassan seen in an undated photo, released by Bulgarian authorities.

Mr. Hassan is wanted alongside Meliad Farah, 32, an Australian citizen. The Lebanese Shi’ite group Hezbollah allegedly recruited the two while they were studying engineering at the Lebanese International University.

The role of people linked to the school has come to the forefront in the case: Lebanese officials confirmed to investigators that a printer at the school’s Beirut campus was used to make the false identity papers used by the bombing suspects, Bulgaria’s Presa reported.

Officials from the school could not be reached Friday.

Bulgarian authorities have made a worldwide appeal for assistance. Investigators have been told the fugitives have not returned to Lebanon and are suspected of staying in Gaza, controlled by the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas.

Canadian government officials said they were offering full co-operation in the probe, although the RCMP declined to comment on any involvement it might have.

Mr. Hassan is alleged to have returned to Canada to collect money sent through international wire transfers. He has a child who remains in Canada and he came back to visit his child before the deadly July 18, 2012, bombing, the National Post has learned.

AP Photo/ Impact Press Group, FileA damaged bus is transported out of Burgas airport, Bulgaria, a day after a deadly suicide attack on a bus full of Israeli vacationers.

Authorities allege the men collected about $100,000 wired to bank accounts in Canada and Australia.

Prior to the bombing, the men flew from Beirut to Warsaw, Poland, and then travelled by train to Bulgaria, Presa reported.

Mr. Hassan arrived using his own Canadian passport, then used a false Michigan driver’s licence that named him as Ralph William Rico from Grand Rapids.

They posed as tourists traveling to Romania and Bulgaria and were seen in several parts of Bulgaria in the weeks before the attack.

Authorities suspect the plan was for the bus to be blown up en route to the tourists’ Black Sea hotel using a remote detonator, which had a 10 km range. Their plans were likely disrupted when the man planting the bomb, hidden in a backpack, was unnerved and his accomplices detonated it early.

HandoutImage of second suspect, Australian Meliad Farrah.

DNA found on documents recovered after the explosion led investigators to believe the dead bomber was related to Mr. Hassan, although the exact connection is uncertain.

In addition to the six dead, 32 people were injured in the July 18, 2012, blast at Sarafovo Airport targeting Israeli tourists arriving from Tel Aviv to visit Bulgaria’s Black Sea resort.

Mr. Hassan was born in Lebanon and came as a child with his mother and brother to join his father, who had already moved to Canada and become a Canadian citizen.

Bulgaria’s former Interior Minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov previously said the bombing suspects were part of a Hezbollah support network.

“The Burgas bombers were maintaining part of Hezbollah’s structures in Canada and Australia and had contacts with other representatives of this organization,” Mr. Tsvetanov said in February.

He also said both Canada and Australia provided information confirming Hezbollah funded the bombing.

Bulgarian authorities have named a Canadian man, Hassan El Hajj Hassan, 25, as a wanted fugitive and suspected Hezbollah operative involved in last year’s bombing of a tourist bus at an airport on Bulgaria’s coast that killed five Israelis and their local driver.

The Bulgarian Ministry of Interior said Thursday it released his name and photo, along with that of a second suspect, an Australian named Meliad Farah, in a global appeal to apprehend the two.

HandoutHassan El Hajj Hassan seen in an undated photo, released by Bulgarian authorities.

Both men were seen in several regions of Bulgaria in the weeks before the attack. One of the bus bombers, not yet identified but who is believed to be related to the Canadian suspect, died in the attack.

Mr. Hassan was born March 22, 1988, in Lebanon and has Lebanese and Canadian citizenship.

He has a child in Canada and came back to visit his child before the deadly July 18, 2012, bombing, the National Post has learned.

While in Canada, he is suspected of also collecting money transfers from Hezbollah, according to sources familiar with the investigation. About $100,000 in additional funds were received through accounts in Australia, with the money allegedly earmarked for organizing the bombing and fact-finding missions in other countries.

His accounts in Canada are now being investigated.

Bulgarian authorities believe Mr. Hassan and Mr. Farah received operational and weapons training from Hezbollah in Lebanon before the attack.

We abhor the violence, the terrorist attack in Bulgaria that left several Israelis dead

Mr. Hassan came to Canada at age eight, with his mother and brother, to join their father who had immigrated years earlier. The family settled in Vancouver.

His father became a permanent resident in the 1990s and a Canadian citizen before sponsoring his family.

About 15 years ago, Mr. Hassan became a Canadian citizen, but a few years later he returned to Beirut with his mother when his parents divorced. He is believed to have travelled back to Canada a few times since but not lived here since about 2000.

The two men were allegedly recruited by Hezbollah while they were studying in Beirut, according to Bulgarian press reports.

They are expected to be tried in Bulgaria, whether they are found and arrested or not.

John Baird, the foreign affairs minister, told reporters Mr. Hassan has not lived in Canada for several years, but declined to provide more specifics.

“We abhor the violence, the terrorist attack in Bulgaria that left several Israelis dead,” Mr. Baird said.

HandoutImage of second suspect, Australian Meliad Farrah.

“Obviously the link to Hezbollah is well known. We are thrilled that the European Union unanimously has agreed to designate Hezbollah as a terrorist organization. We’ve been pushing for this.”

Travelling on his Canadian passport, Mr. Hassan allegedly arrived in Bulgaria three weeks before the bombing. He then began using a fake Michigan driver’s licence that named him as Ralph William Rico. The suspects allegedly built the explosive device in Bulgaria.

Although investigators initially described the attack as a suicide bombing, they now believe the bomb, hidden in a backpack, went off prematurely as it was being planted in the bus’s luggage compartment.

DNA found on a forged driver’s licence, recovered after being thrown out a window after the explosion, leads investigators to believe the dead bomber was related to Mr. Hassan, although the exact family connection is uncertain.

Bulgarian authorities are keen to find Mr. Hassan and Mr. Farah, also known as Hussein Hussein.

“The investigative authorities suspect that the aforementioned individuals have registered themselves at hotels and accommodations, using fake identities under the name of Brian Jeremiah Jameson, Jacque Felipe Martin and Ralph William Rico,” Bulgaria’s interior ministry said in a statement.

“They are also believed to have rented cars using the mentioned fake identities.” Authorities believe in July 2012, Mr. Farah rented a Renault Clio with the licence plate number А9027КТ in the village of Ravda.

NIKOLAY DOYCHINOV/AFP/Getty ImagesTwo buses explode on April 26, 2013 as investigators re-enact the July 2012 Burgas airport bus bombing that killed five Israeli tourists near the town of Ihtiman in an effort to resolve some of the many still unanswered questions.

“All citizens having information about the individuals are appealed to contact the nearest structure of the Ministry of Interior. Their anonymity is guaranteed,” the ministry said.

Last week, Bulgaria extended its investigation for another five months.

Tsvetlin Yovchev, the country’s interior minister, said the investigation has been aided by authorities in other countries.

“Recently we received more data from international partners. What has already been published is the only information that we can reveal at this time,” he said.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police declined to say if the federal force has been involved.

Spokeswoman Sergeant Julie Gagnon would not confirm or deny whether Mr. Hassan is being investigated, nor would she say if the force is cooperating or communicating with Bulgarian officials.

AP Photo/ BurgasinfoSmoke rises into the sky after an explosion at Burgas airport, outside the Black Sea city of Burgas, Bulgaria, some 400 kilometers east of the capital, Sofia, Wednesday, July 18, 2012.

Government officials, however, promised full cooperation.

“Terrorism remains a real threat to Canada and to the world. The government of Canada will provide its full support to any investigation of a terrorist act that does or may include Canadian citizens,” said Alexis Pavlich, press secretary for new Citizenship &amp; Immigration minister Chris Alexander.

“Our thoughts and prayers are with families and friends who tragically lost loved ones in the horrific terrorist attack in Bulgaria.”

She said the government is planning legislation that would strip convicted terrorists of their Canadian citizenship.

Last week, the Post revealed evidence found at the scene of the Bulgarian blast and intelligence information showed Hezbollah was to blame.

The suspects received money transfers from Hezbollah and the explosives were consistent with Hezbollah methods. In addition, the U.S. driver’s licences used by the suspects were produced by a Beirut printer that has manufactured other false identification documents for Hezbollah, the source said.

“There is no question this was Hezbollah,” said Prof. Matt Levitt, author of the recent book Hezbollah: The Global Footprint of Lebanon’s Party of God.

“The question is how much of the information will be able to be made public. There are some things that are still unknown. There are some things that are known but have not been made public. But there is no question that this was Hezbollah, period.”

Natalie and Amir Menashe were ready for a holiday when their flight from Tel Aviv landed in Bulgaria on July 18, 2012. Outside Sarafovo Airport, four buses waited to carry them and 150 other Israeli tourists to the sunny beaches of the Black Sea.

HandoutAmir Menashe, who was killed in the attack on a tourist bus at Bulgaria’s Sarafovo Airport last July 18, 2012 .

The mother of a 10-month-old, Ms. Menashe was boarding her bus when the bomb went off. “I couldn’t breathe and started running away from the smoke,” she told the Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper. “I turned back and I saw the bus go up in flames.”

A year later, police on four continents are still investigating the terrorist attack that, on European soil, killed Ms. Menashe’s husband and four other Israelis, as well as a Bulgarian bus driver and one of the bombers. Thirty-two people were injured.

The investigation has also stretched into Canada: One of the three main suspects is a Canadian of Lebanese origin. The others are a Lebanese-Australian and an unidentified man who died while planting the bomb, hidden in a backpack, that exploded in the luggage compartment of the tour bus.

At a briefing Wednesday, Bulgaria’s Interior Minister, Tsvetlin Yovchev, told reporters that while he could not divulge details due to the ongoing investigation, the evidence points to Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed, Lebanese terrorist group.

NIKOLAY DOYCHINOV/AFP/Getty ImagesTwo buses explode on April 26, 2013 as investigators re-enact the July 2012 Burgas airport bus bombing that killed five Israeli tourists near the town of Ihtiman in an effort to resolve some of the many still unanswered questions.

Bulgarian officials declined to discuss the case but a source familiar with the investigation told the National Post that evidence recovered at the scene of the blast as well as intelligence information clearly show that Hezbollah was to blame.

The suspects received money transfers from Hezbollah and the explosives were consistent with Hezbollah methods, the source said. In addition, the U.S. driver’s licences used by the suspects were produced by a Beirut printer that has manufactured other fake IDs for Hezbollah, said the source.

“There is no question this was Hezbollah,” said Prof. Matt Levitt, author of the recent book Hezbollah: The Global Footprint of Lebanon’s Party of God. “The question is how much of the information will be able to be made public. There are some things that are still unknown. There are some things that are known but have not been made public. But there is no question that this was Hezbollah, period.”

AP Photo/ Impact Press Group, FileA damaged bus is transported out of Burgas airport, Bulgaria, a day after a deadly suicide attack on a bus full of Israeli vacationers.

Last week, Bulgaria extended its investigation for five months. Meanwhile, Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom have been pressing the European Union to blacklist Hezbollah as a terrorist organization now that it has been found responsible for an attack within Europe.

“Hezbollah continues to perpetuate instability and promote fear, right on Europe’s door step,” Rick Roth, Foreign Minister John Baird’s spokesman, said Wednesday, adding “we continue to urge our friends in the European Union to list Hezbollah as a terrorist entity.”

The Burgas bombing was one of several recent terror plots linked to Hezbollah and the Quds Force, the clandestine branch of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps. Others have been foiled in Cyprus, India, Georgia, Azerbaijan and the United States. Prof. Levitt said they were Iran’s response to international pressure over its nuclear program.

AP Photo/ BurgasinfoSmoke rises into the sky after an explosion at Burgas airport, outside the Black Sea city of Burgas, Bulgaria, some 400 kilometers east of the capital, Sofia, Wednesday, July 18, 2012.

“Iran instructed Hezbollah to target Israeli tourists around the world as part of its shadow war with the West, at the same time that it tasked the Quds Force with targeting Western diplomats, Israelis, Americans, Brits, Saudis — all as part of a shadow war over the nuclear program,” he said.

The Canadian implicated in the Bulgaria attack has not yet been publicly identified but in February, then-Immigration Minister Jason Kenney said the suspect had immigrated to Canada from Lebanon at age eight and later became a citizen.

He lived in Vancouver but returned to Beirut with his mother when his parents divorced. “I understand he may have been back to Canada a few times since then but has not been a habitual resident in Canada since the age of 12,” Mr. Kenney said.

AFP PHOTO / INTERPOLA composite portrait of a Canadian suspected accomplice to the man who blew himself up near a bus packed with Israeli tourists at Burgas airport last year.

Travelling on his Canadian passport, he allegedly arrived in Bulgaria three weeks before the bombing. He then began using a fake Michigan driver’s licence that named him as Ralph William Rico. The suspects allegedly built the explosive device in Bulgaria.

Although investigators initially described the attack as a suicide bombing, they now believe the bomb went off prematurely as one of the terrorists was planting it on the bus. The two surviving terrorists escaped by car following the blast and are now in Lebanon. Authorities in Lebanon, where Hezbollah is a key member of the government, do not appear to be co-operating with the investigation.

At her husband’s funeral, Ms. Menashe was still in a wheelchair, recovering from her injuries. “I have no one now,” she said at the service, according to the Times of Israel. “We talked about our plans for the future and suddenly we were blown up. I saw him burned before my eyes.”

A woman who originally came to Canada from Iran claiming refugee status has been detained in Bulgaria, accused of being an Iranian agent caught scoping out a Jewish centre in the capital city of Sofia.

A source familiar with the case, who did not wish to be identified because the source is not authorized to discuss it, told the National Post that the woman travelled to Bulgaria using a Canadian passport.

She came to Canada in the mid-1990s from Iran and claimed refugee protection, a claim that was accepted and she was granted asylum in Canada. Later, she became a Canadian citizen, the source said, allowing her to travel on the widely respected Canadian passport.

The unidentified woman, in her 50s, arrived in Sofia from Istanbul a few weeks after a high-profile 2012 Hezbollah bus bombing in Bulgaria that killed five Israeli tourists and a local driver, the Jerusalem Post reported.

Bulgarian officials were on high alert after that attack — which also had a Canadian connection, allegedly organized by a man who also possessed a genuine Canadian passport — likely attracting attention to the Canadian woman.

According to the Jerusalem Post, she was arrested on her first day in Sofia when she was seen conducting apparent surveillance of the Chabad centre, which houses a synagogue.

In February, the unnamed suspected organizer of the deadly bus bombing was also linked to Canada, raising questions about Canadian citizens who live abroad after obtaining citizenship and being granted a Canadian passport.

After emigrating from Lebanon with his family and settling in British Columbia, the suspect became a naturalized Canadian citizen a decade ago. But when his parents divorced, he left Vancouver and returned with his mother to Lebanon at age 12.

Since then, he has returned to Canada only twice to visit family, but he still carried a Canadian passport — which he allegedly used to enter Bulgaria on June 28, 2012, to help orchestrate the bombing on behalf of the Lebanese terrorist group Hezbollah.

Canada’s Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade declined to comment on the specifics of the case, citing privacy concerns and “issues of national security.”

Canada listed Hezbollah as a terrorist entity under the Criminal Code in December, 2002, and listed its principal backer, Iran, as a state supporter of terrorism under the Justice for Victims of Terrorism Act on Sept. 7, 2012, the department said.

Canada is urging European countries to taking a harder stance on Hezbollah.

“We urge the European Union and all partners who have not already done so to list Hezbollah as a terrorist entity and prosecute terrorist acts committed by this inhumane organization to the fullest possible extent,” said Emma Welford, a spokeswoman for Foreign Affairs.

“Canada is committed to fighting global terrorism and to holding perpetrators of terrorism — and those who provide them support — accountable for their actions.”

John Baird, Canada’s Foreign Minister, discussed Iran’s role in terrorism with top Israeli officials during his recent visit to Israel.

“Preventing and countering violent extremism is a priority for Canada. We will not tolerate terrorist activity or those who support terrorist activity, at home or abroad,” said Ms. Welford.

SOFIA, Bulgaria — Officials say a turbo generator at Bulgaria’s only nuclear power station has been shut down due to a hydrogen leak in its cooling system but insist there is no danger to the public.

A statement Monday from the Kozloduy power plant said the component that was shut down was part of its conventional, non-nuclear unit. It said “there were no changes in the radioactivity level at the plant.”

It was not immediately clear what repairs are necessary at the plant on the Danube River, located 200 kilometres north of the capital Sofia, or when the unit might be back in operation.

The plant has two 1000-megawatt Russia-built nuclear units. Two older 440-megawatt units at the nuclear plant were permanently decommissioned in 2006 because of European Union safety concerns.

]]>http://news.nationalpost.com/2013/04/15/emergency-shutdown-at-bulgaria-nuclear-plant-after-hydrogen-leak-in-cooling-system/feed/2stdBulgaria's only nuclear power plant near the town of Kozloduy.Bulgaria bus bombing suspect had real Canadian passport, lived in B.C. before return to Lebanon at age 12http://news.nationalpost.com/2013/02/05/canadian-citizen-confirmed-as-suspected-organizer-of-deadly-bulgaria-bus-bombing/
http://news.nationalpost.com/2013/02/05/canadian-citizen-confirmed-as-suspected-organizer-of-deadly-bulgaria-bus-bombing/#commentsTue, 05 Feb 2013 15:33:52 +0000http://news.nationalpost.com/?p=260838

The suspected organizer of a Hezbollah bus bombing that killed five Israeli tourists and a local driver in Bulgaria last July has only tenuous links to Canada but still possessed a genuine Canadian passport, the National Post has learned.

After emigrating from Lebanon with his family and settling in British Columbia, the suspect became a naturalized Canadian citizen a decade ago. But when his parents divorced, he left Vancouver and returned with his mother to Lebanon at age 12.

Since then, he has returned to Canada only twice to visit family, but he still carried a Canadian passport — which he allegedly used to enter Bulgaria on June 28, 2012 to help orchestrate the bombing on behalf of the Lebanese terrorist group Hezbollah.

If confirmed by an RCMP investigation, his case could raise new questions about the tens of thousands of naturalized citizens who, despite living abroad and having only meagre ties to Canada, carry Canadian passports.

Matt Levitt, a leading U.S. expert on Hezbollah, said in an interview that after a string of failed attacks the terrorist group began actively seeking recruits with Western passports about three years ago.

“Hezbollah was told in early 2010 by Iran, ‘Go back and fix your operational security problems,’” said Mr. Levitt, a senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. “One thing that they did was they went out and they found these guys.”

More than 30 were also injured when the suicide bomber struck a tour bus parked at Sarafovo Airport in Burgas. Most of the victims were youths who had just arrived on a flight from Tel Aviv to vacation on the Black Sea.

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On Tuesday, Bulgaria’s interior minister, Tsvetan Tsvetanov, told reporters a seven-month investigation had concluded the attack was the work of the bomber who died in the attack and two members of a Hezbollah cell — one Canadian and the other Australian.

REUTERS/Stoyan NenovAn Israeli survivor of the blast in July is carried on a wheelchair to an ambulance as he leaves a hospital in Burgas.

He said the Canadian and Australian had entered Bulgaria three weeks before the attack using their genuine passports. They then began using fake Michigan driver’s licences — manufactured in Lebanon — to rent cars and hotel rooms.

“We have followed their entire activities in Australia and Canada so we have information about financing and their membership in Hezbollah,” he said in a statement on the Bulgarian interior ministry website. “A reasonable assumption can be made that the two of them were members of the militant wing of Hezbollah.”

Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird said Canada was working with Bulgarian authorities on the case. He identified the suspect as a “dual national living in Lebanon” but it was unclear whether the Canadian was currently in Lebanon.

“That Bulgaria has found convincing evidence of Hezbollah involvement in this carnage is, sadly, not surprising. It is yet more evidence of the depravity of Hezbollah,” Mr. Baird said. He called on the European Union to list Hezbollah as a terrorist organization.

The Bulgarians are the second government in less than a month to link major terrorist attacks in their countries to Canadians. Two weeks ago, Algerian Prime Minister Abdelmalik Sellal claimed two Canadians were involved in a siege at a gas plant that left 38 workers dead.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rR1flTfl2DQ&w=640&h=390]

The National Post has independently verified that the suspected organizer of the attack is a naturalized Canadian citizen. His links to Hezbollah remain unclear but the Iranian-backed Shi’ite terrorist group has long been active in Canada.

According to a Canadian intelligence report recently released to the Post: “Hezbollah has had a presence in Canada … Hezbollah supporters conduct fundraising, procurement and intelligence activities in Canada, and are involved in organized crime, including fraud.

“Hezbollah continues to threaten retaliation against Israeli interests worldwide for the killing of key individuals in the past two years,” reads the report by the government’s Integrated Terrorism Assessment Centre.

The bus attack at the Sarafovo Airport in Burgas was one of several attempts to strike Israelis around the world as Iran — Hezbollah’s state sponsor — was under international pressure over its rogue nuclear program.

A second declassified intelligence report, dated five months before the Burgas attack, said Hezbollah had already made 10 attempts to attack Israeli interests abroad, partly to retaliate for the 2008 death of Hezbollah’s chief terrorist Imad Mugniyah, who was killed by a bomb planted in his car in Damascus.

Hezbollah is a radical Islamist group funded, trained and armed by Iran, which uses it as a proxy force to conduct terrorist attacks around the world. Canada outlawed Hezbollah in 2002, calling it “one of the most technically capable terrorist groups in the world.”

In his statement, Mr. Baird called Hezbollah an “inhumane organization.” But since it assassinated former prime minister Rafiq Hariri in 2005, Hezbollah has also become one of the most powerful political factions in the Lebanese government.

The bombing in Bulgaria would not be the first time Hezbollah had used Canadians to conduct attacks abroad. In 2002, Canadian Hezbollah member Fawzi Ayub was caught in Israel attempting to organize a bombing attack.

Last year, a Quebec Muslim activist, Mouna Diab, was charged with smuggling firearms parts to Hezbollah. Acting under the direction of a Hezbollah associate in Lebanon, Ms. Diab had purchased AR-15-type rifle parts around Montreal and shipped them to Lebanon in packages carried by community members unaware of the scheme, according to the RCMP.

]]>http://news.nationalpost.com/2013/02/05/canadian-citizen-confirmed-as-suspected-organizer-of-deadly-bulgaria-bus-bombing/feed/0stdA bus that was damaged in a bomb blast is seen outside Burgas Airport, about 400km (248miles) east of Sofia July 19, 2012.REUTERS/Stoyan NenovCanadian, Australian suspected in sophisticated Bulgaria bus bombing that killed five Israelishttp://news.nationalpost.com/2013/02/05/australian-suspected-in-bulgaria-bus-bombing-that-killed-five-israelis-u-s-officials-say/
http://news.nationalpost.com/2013/02/05/australian-suspected-in-bulgaria-bus-bombing-that-killed-five-israelis-u-s-officials-say/#commentsTue, 05 Feb 2013 13:44:32 +0000http://news.nationalpost.com/?p=260764

SOFIA, Bulgaria (AP) — Bulgaria has linked Lebanon’s militant group Hezbollah to the bomb attack on a bus last July that killed five Israeli tourists.

Interior Minister Tsvetan Tsevtnov says two of the suspects linked to the bombing had entered the country with an Australian and a Canadian passport.

He says “we have established that the two were members of the militant link of Hezbollah.”

Speaking Tuesday after a meeting of the country’s National Security Council, the minister said Bulgaria expects “the government of Lebanon to assist” in the investigation.

Investigators say a Canadian and an Australian are suspects in a remote-controlled bomb attack that killed Israeli tourists in Bulgaria.

Authorities also said that evidence in the bombing pointed back to Lebanon and to the Islamist militant group Hezbollah.

Hezbollah has denied involvement.

AFP / Getty ImagesSmoke rises over Bourgas airport on July 18, 2012.

]]>http://news.nationalpost.com/2013/02/05/australian-suspected-in-bulgaria-bus-bombing-that-killed-five-israelis-u-s-officials-say/feed/0stdA bus that was damaged in a bomb blast is seen outside Burgas Airport, about 400km (248miles) east of Sofia July 19, 2012.AFP / Getty ImagesThe moment a convicted underworld boss tries to pinpoint the assassin who shot him on the steps of a Bulgarian courthousehttp://news.nationalpost.com/2013/01/29/the-moment-a-convicted-underworld-boss-tries-to-pinpoint-the-assassin-who-shot-him-on-the-steps-of-a-bulgarian-courthouse/
http://news.nationalpost.com/2013/01/29/the-moment-a-convicted-underworld-boss-tries-to-pinpoint-the-assassin-who-shot-him-on-the-steps-of-a-bulgarian-courthouse/#commentsTue, 29 Jan 2013 17:06:32 +0000http://news.nationalpost.com/?p=257981

SOFIA, Bulgaria — A convicted underworld boss was shot and seriously wounded in broad daylight outside a courthouse in Bulgaria’s capital on Tuesday, sending panicked people on a busy downtown street scrambling for cover.

The shooter or shooters opened fire at around 9:30 a.m., probably from an apartment building across the street from the Sofia Courthouse, police said. Minutes after the shooting, a fire broke out at the top floor of the building, suggesting that the assailant or assailants may have set a fire to hide their tracks.

Zlatomir Ivanov and one of his bodyguards were both hit as they walked up the stairs to enter the court for an appeals hearing. The bodyguard managed to return fire but was wounded in the leg. Police said Ivanov was undergoing surgery after suffering four gunshot wounds in his legs, arm and stomach.

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Ivanov, 44, was sentenced last year to eight years in prison after being convicted of leading an organized criminal group engaging in illegal drugs trade. He appealed the sentence and has been under house arrest since then to recuperate from earlier surgery.

Prime Minister Boiko Borisov, a former top cop, said that “the site gives easy access for a shooting,” and added that if Ivanov had been in custody, he would have had protection.

“I have always claimed that persons who have first been sentenced will be much healthier if they stay in custody,” Borisov said while addressing a meeting of businessmen at a hotel near the shooting site.

The prosecutor’s office said in a statement that “such a brutal act of violence … in an area of major state institutions and public buildings in a way threatening the life and health of many citizens is a matter of serious worry and concern.”

Bulgaria, which joined the European Union in 2007, is still under pressure from Brussels to erase deep-rooted corruption and organized crime that has plagued the country more than two decades after it shook off communism.

DIMITAR DILKOFF/AFP/Getty ImagesPolice investigators work at the scene where Zlatomir Ivanov, nicknamed Zlatko "the Beret" was shot in front of the Supreme Court of Appeal in capital Sofia on January 29, 2013.

BULGARIA OUTBGNES/AFP/Getty ImagesBodyguards carry the wounded Zlatomir Ivanov, nicknamed Zlatko "the Beret" right after he was shot in front of the Supreme Court of Appeal in capital Sofia on January 29, 2013.

SOFIA, Bulgaria — A Bulgarian who tried to shoot a gas pistol at the leader of his country’s ethnic Turkish political party testified Tuesday that his only regret is that his weapon didn’t work.

“I did not intend to kill Ahmed Dogan. I just intended to scare him,” Oktay Enimehmedov told a court hearing.

Enimehmedov, 25, has been charged with making a murder threat and hooliganism for aiming the gas pistol at Dogan’s head on Jan. 19 as the leader of Bulgaria’s Movement for Rights and Freedom was on a stage giving a speech at his party’s annual conference in Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria.

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The gun didn’t fire and Dogan, 58, was not harmed, but Dogan pushed the gunman’s hand, then dove to the floor as other people at the conference wrestled Enimehmedov to the ground and repeatedly punched and kicked him.

“I regret only that my gun misfired,” Enimehmedov told the court hearing, which denied him bail for two reasons: he could flee and his own safety could be at risk.

Experts say a gas pistol is a nonlethal weapon used for self-defense, but that when fired from close range it can cause life-threatening injuries.

BTV/AFP/Getty ImagesA video grab shows politician Ahmed Dogan reacting as Oktai Enimehmedov points a gun at his head during a speech on Jan. 19, 2013.

A TV video of the attack, which went viral on Internet, has prompted hundreds of Bulgarians to demand that delegates who beat Enimehmedov be brought to justice. On Tuesday, Deputy Prosecutor General Borislav Sarafov told reporters an investigation of the beating of Enimehmedov is under way and that those responsible could face charges.

Dogan’s Movement for Rights and Freedom party mainly represents ethnic Turks and other Muslims in Bulgaria, who make up 12 percent of the nation’s 7.3-million people. Dogan has been the party’s leader since he founded it in 1990, and the Jan. 19 conference chose Lyutvi Mestan, Dogan’s deputy, as his successor.

On Tuesday, an alliance of European political parties issued a statement asking the European Union to hold a plenary hearing about the rule of law and personal freedoms in Bulgaria in the wake of the assault on Dogan.

Guy Verhofstadt, the leader of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe, said: “It was a miracle that the incident did not end up tragically and should not be dismissed lightly.” He said that such an attack on a party leader “raises broader questions on the state of democracy in Bulgaria.”

SOFIA, Bulgaria — Bulgarian police detained a man after he pointed a gas pistol at an ethnic Turkish party leader as he was delivering a speech at a party caucus in the capital Saturday. No shots were fired.

The video from the Saturday event in Sofia shows the man climbing the podium where Ahmed Dogan, the leader of the Movement for Rights and Freedoms, was speaking, and pointing the gun to his face.

Dogan struck the man before he could pull the trigger, while other delegates wrestled the assailant to the ground. TV footage showed several people punching, kicking and stomping on the man when he was on the ground.

Police arrested him and took him to a hospital. It wasn’t immediately clear if he sustained serious injuries, or how he got past security to enter the hall with nearly 3,000 people attending.

BTV/AFP/Getty ImagesA video grab shows politician Ahmed Dogan reacting as Oktai Enimehmedov points a gun at his head during a speech on Jan. 19, 2013.

Eventually, the attacker was identified by police as 25-year-old Oktai Enimehmedov, a Bulgarian national and ethnic Turk, from the coastal city of Burgas. He was carrying the gas pistol and two knives. A gas pistol is a non-lethal weapon used for self-defence, but experts say when fired from close range it can cause life-threatening injuries.

Interior Minister Tsvevtan Tsvetanov told journalists that the assailant had a criminal record for drugs possession, robberies and hooliganism.

The liberal MRF party mainly represents ethnic Turks and other Muslims in Bulgaria, who make up 12% of its 7.3-million population.

The conference had to elect a new leader to succeed Dogan, who is one of the Balkan country’s most influential political figures. The 58-year-old has been at the helm of the party since founding it in 1990.

Lyutvi Mestan, who was expected to become the new party leader, said “the true reason for the assault was the language of hatred and confrontation.”

Saturday’s assault was the gravest attack on a politician in post-communist Bulgaria after the 1996 killing of ex-Prime Minister Andrei Lukanov.

The German government’s human rights commissioner, Markus Loening, was at the party caucus in Sofia on Saturday, and witnessed the incident, the German Foreign Ministry said. “I am very happy that Ahmed Dogan was not injured,” Loening said in a statement. “Political violence must never again gain a foothold in Europe.”

SOFIA, Bulgaria — Bulgarian authorities said Thursday they have identified one of three suspected terrorists involved in a bomb attack that killed five Israeli tourists and a Bulgarian bus driver last July.

The head of the investigation team told the 24 Chasa daily that the identified suspect was an accomplice of the one blown up in the attack at the airport of the Black Sea city of Burgas. Stanelia Karadzhova did not reveal his name or nationality, but added that all suspects were foreign nationals and there were no known local accomplices.

Karadzhova said an arrest warrant had been issued. “We know his country of origin, and that he has not lived there for the past six years,” she said.

The investigator said that new evidence suggests the bombing was not a suicide attack as previously believed, because the bomber’s moves ahead of the attack indicated that he did not intend to die.

NIKOLAY DOYCHINOV/AFP/Getty ImagesA truck carries the bus damaged by the suicide bomb blast which targeted a group of Israeli tourists at the airport in Bourgas, Bulgaria, on July 19, 2012.

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Karadzhova explained that the bomber either pushed the button by mistake, or somebody triggered the explosion remotely. She added that investigators will re-enact the attack by blowing up a bus in search of more details.

Karadzhova also said that the suspected accomplices and the bomber were never seen together and that it remained unclear whether they used phones or laptops to communicate.

She said that the suspects were linked because they carried similar fake ID cards. Another common factor, she said, was their “identical way of life with just few needs, very ordered and simple, like in the army, which suggests they had the same type of training.”

No arrests have been made in the case six months after the bombing. Israel claims Iran and the militant group Hezbollah played roles in the attack, but Bulgarian investigators have not announced any evidence of such a link.

NIKOLAY DOYCHINOV/AFP/Getty ImagesIsrael's Tourism Minister Stas Misezhnikov (C, R) pays his respects to the five Israeli victims of a suicide blast which targeted a bus of Israeli tourists, during a commemoration ceremony at the site of the blast at Burgas Airport on July 24, 2012.

]]>http://news.nationalpost.com/2013/01/03/bulgaria-identifies-terror-suspect-in-deadly-attack-on-israeli-tour-bus/feed/2stdThis image taken from security video provided by the Bulgarian Interior Ministry Thursday, July 19, 2012 purports to show the unidentified bomber, center, with long hair and wearing a baseball cap, at Burgas Airport in Burgas, Bulgaria, on Wednesday, July 18, 2012.DOYCHINOVNIKOLAY DOYCHINOV/AFP/Getty ImagesNIKOLAY DOYCHINOV/AFP/Getty ImagesU.S. links Iran to nine 2012 plots against Israeli targets around the world: reporthttp://news.nationalpost.com/2012/07/20/u-s-links-iran-to-nine-2012-plots-against-israeli-targets-around-the-world-report/
http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/07/20/u-s-links-iran-to-nine-2012-plots-against-israeli-targets-around-the-world-report/#commentsFri, 20 Jul 2012 17:38:21 +0000http://news.nationalpost.com/?p=196174

New York police believe Iranian Revolutionary Guards or their proxies have been involved so far this year in nine plots against Israeli or Jewish targets around the world, according to restricted police documents obtained by Reuters.

Reports prepared this week by intelligence analysts for the New York Police Department (NYPD) say three plots were foiled in January, three in February and another three since late June. Iran has repeatedly denied supporting militant attacks abroad.

The documents, labeled “Law Enforcement Sensitive,” said that this week’s suicide bomb attack in Bulgaria was the second plot to be unmasked there this year.

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The reports detail two plots in Bangkok and one each in New Delhi, Tbilisi, Baku, Mombasa and Cyprus. Each plot was attributed to Iran or its Lebanese Hezbollah militant allies, said the reports, which were produced following the bombing in Burgas, Bulgaria of a bus carrying Israeli tourists.

Iran on Thursday dismissed “unfounded statements” by Israel linking Tehran to the Burgas blast, saying they were politically motivated accusations which underscored the weakness of the accusers.

Wednesday’s bombing in the Black Sea city is listed in a document headed “Suspected Iranian and/or Hezbollah-linked Plots Against Israeli or Jewish Targets: 2012 Chronology”, the latest of the nine 2012 plots linked to the Islamic Republic or its proxies.

U.S. officials say they increasingly concur with Israeli assessments that Iran and its proxies organized the killing of seven Israeli tourists in Burgas by a suicide bomber after they boarded an airport bus.

Nikolay Doychinovnikolay / AFP Getty ImagesU.S. officials say they increasingly concur with Israeli assessments that Iran and its proxies organized the killing of seven Israeli tourists in the Bulgarian Black sea port of Burgas by a suicide bomber after they boarded an airport bus July 18.

One U.S. official said Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed Shi’ite Muslim militia, had in the past carried out suicide bombings.

Hezbollah says that while it carried out suicide bombings against Israeli army posts in south Lebanon when it was occupied, until 2000, it has never staged attacks outside Lebanon.

The U.S. official noted that the Burgas bombing occurred on the 18th anniversary of the bombing of a Jewish center in Buenos Aires, which Argentina linked to Iran.

The official said the Bulgaria attack appeared relatively sophisticated as it suggested those behind it had gathered intelligence on possible targets in advance.

MORE PLOTS, SOPHISTICATION VARIES

A second U.S. official said U.S. federal authorities’ tally of alleged Iran-linked plots in 2012 largely paralleled the NYPD list.

Mark Regev, spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, said in the past year there had been “20 Iranian attempts at terrorist attacks abroad, in which there was direct involvement of five Iranians, two Hezbollah operatives”.

[Iran had] sharply increased its operational tempo and its willingness to conduct terrorist attacks targeting Israeli interests and the International Jewish community worldwide

After the Bulgaria bus bombing, a senior U.S. law enforcement official said New York police had increased their counter-terrorism focus on Jewish neighborhoods and institutions, over concerns of Iranian attacks on U.S. soil should U.S. or Israeli tensions with Iran escalate.

In a two-page paper summarizing its assessment of the alleged pattern of Iranian-related plots this year, NYPD analysts said that through its own Revolutionary Guard and Hezbollah, Iran had “sharply increased its operational tempo and its willingness to conduct terrorist attacks targeting Israeli interests and the International Jewish community worldwide”.

But the paper noted that many of this year’s plots lacked the sophistication and precision that characterized earlier plots linked to Iran.

Some bombs used in the recent plots shared certain features such as the use of military grade plastic explosives and magnets to attach the device to metal targets. While some had been detonated by remote control, others had relied on the “crude but effective tactic of pulling the pin on a hand grenade.”

The summary said the plotters had on occasion used local criminal elements, citing a plot in Baku where Iranian Revolutionary Guards agents provided weapons, equipment and selected the target for attack by Azeri criminals.

“This is an extremely dangerous combination,” the report concluded, adding that the geographic spread of the attacks and the willingness to go with less sophisticated plots “may add to the danger rather than lessen it.”

]]>http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/07/20/u-s-links-iran-to-nine-2012-plots-against-israeli-targets-around-the-world-report/feed/17stdSmoke rises over Bourgas airport on July 18, 2012.A truck carries the bus damaged by the s